4830: Selling a mosque in order to buy a new mosque in a better location

A question has come up in our community here in Victoria, BC, Canada
regarding the selling of our Masjid property.Alhamdulillaah, a few years ago we purchased a property and converted it into a Masjid. Things are going quite well there. Now we have seen another property and many brothers feel that it is a better location and so on. Would it be permissible for us in such a case to sell the present Masjid so that we could buy the second property which
we prefer?

Praise be to Allaah.

We put this question to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih
al-‘Uthaymeen, who replied as follows:

“Praise be to Allaah. Yes, this is permissible, but on the
condition that the (Muslim) neighbours agree. If the Muslim neighbours of the mosque who
pray there agree, then there is nothing wrong with it, because the other mosque may be far
away from them, and this mosque is freehold.”

Question:

If the Muslims in that city are scattered and live far away from one
another, whose opinion should count?

Answer:

“They should heed the opinion of those among them who live near
the mosque, so that the mosque will not be so far away from them that it becomes difficult
for them to attend.

Question:

If the other mosque or new mosque will benefit a greater number of
Muslims, what should they do?

Answer:

“I think that they should leave the old mosque as it is and build
another, new mosque in the other place. If they cannot build the other mosque because they
have little money, I think they should leave the old mosque as it is so that its
neighbours are not adversely affected by the new mosque being too far away.